|
Q: The robot hasn't been used for a while and now the
tips do not go to the correct position or the syringe drives do not move.
Q: The Gilson oil tip misses every second well and I had to
hand pipette the oil into those wells.
Q: My Question is not listed here
Q: The robot hasn't been used for a
while and now the tips do not go to the correct position or the syringe drives
do not move.
A: If the machine has not been used regularly it is
possible that it may have become dusty. We recommend the following:
For the table and tips:
1. Check the leadscrews on the Z and V arms for
dust. Do not ever put any oil on them. If you can, blow them off with some
compressed air.
2. Put some of the oil from the little bottle that we supplied on the side
and back (closest to the ZV-Box) stainless steel shafts of the X and Y
movements of the table.
3. Now run Front Panel; go to the "View" menu and select 'Debugging' this
will add additional items to the other menus.
4. Click on the 'Plateloader' menu and select 'Test
Axis'. Run tests on X;Y;Z and V axis. You can increase the speed factor to
about 1.5 and the tests should run ok without hearing any missing of steps
(grating noises).
Just running the test is a good way of loosening up
the movement, so if the test fails (you hear grating) select 'Rezero' for
the axis and then run it again at a slower speed. You can increase the
number of repetitions to really give it a workout.
IF Z and V fail constantly try to put WD40®
spray on their leadscrews.
5. After all of this select, from the Plateloader menu, 'clear tip offsets'
and then 'install tip' to recalibrate it as normal. Select 'View' ¦
'Debugging' again to get rid of the extra menu items.
For Syringe Drives:
1. If the syringe drives are stuck at the bottom
then start Front Panel and click on 'Syringes' ¦ 'Debubble'
2. While the syringes are moving up, find the
syringe drive that is not moving. Grab its leadscrew between your fingers
and give it a twist in both directions. It should start moving.
3. You MUST now perform a Rezero of all the
syringes: Click on 'Syringes' ¦ 'Rezero' and wait for all the syringes to
reach the bottom of their run before pressing the stop button.
4. Run a few cycles of 'debubble' and 'rezero' to
free up the syringe drives. Make sure to always wait for all syringes to
reach the bottom during a rezero to avoid any damage to the syringes during
normal operation.
Q: The Gilson oil tip misses every
second well and I had to hand pipette the oil into those wells. The tip lowers
over the well as usual but seems to miss the last step and the oil doesn't get
dispensed. Consequently, the next well then gets an extra load of oil.
A: Are you dispensing pure Paraffin oil or the 50/50 mixture?
We find that pure paraffin works best, you then top up the plate with the
mixture you need.
The other things to check are:
1: The height of the Gilson tip - set to touch the table during the first part
of an 'install tip'
2: In the screen design phase -where you set the drop size etc. - there is a
value called "Oil vol withdraw after dispense". It is normally set to 8 (µl)
but if it is missing drops you can try to lower it to say 6. If it is too low
you may get oil dripping between dispensing wells.
Q: My Question is not listed
here
A: Please
contact us and we will respond to your query as
soon as possible
| 
